Natural Fullerenes And Related Structures Of Elemental Carbon

Observational, experimental and analytical data overwhelmingly show that C60, larger fullerenes and related structures of elemental carbon exist in interstellar space, meteorites and on Earth associated with meteorite in impact events and in carbon-rich environments such as coals (shungite) and bitumen. The existence of natural fullerene is at best contested and incompletely documented; realistically it is still controversial. Their presence in astronomical environments can be experimentally constrained but observationally they remain elusive. Fullerene formation in planetary environments is poorly understood but they survived for giga-years when the environmental conditions were exactly right. However, even then only a fraction of their original abundance survived. Natural fullerenes and related carbon structures are found in interstellar space, carbonaceous meteorites, associated with giant meteorite impacts, including at the famous Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, in soot, coal and natural bitumen.

This book provides an up-to-date summary of the state of knowledge on natural fullerene occurrences and the laboratory techniques used to determine their presence at low concentration in rock samples. The book demonstrates that natural fullerenes exist and should be searched for in places not yet considered such as carbon-containing deep-seated crustal rocks.

This book is written for professional astronomers, meteoriticists, earth and planetary scientists, biologists and chemists interested in carbon and hydrocarbon vapor condensation.